The fire has also, at least temporarily, worsened the entire nation of Canada’s carbon dioxide emissions. “We had other fire years in Canada where the total emissions, over the entire fire season, certainly approached 20 percent or more of the total emissions. This single wildfire thus may have given off enough carbon to account for over 10 percent of Canada’s total emissions. That, in turn, means that this single fire has contributed – for a rough estimate – some 85 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. In 2014, the last year for which statistics are currently available, Canada emitted a net of 732 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.

Source: National Post May 20, 2016 16:26 UTC